Pittsburgh Politics

I've been catching up with the Post-Gazette online, so I don't know how prominently this story was played. I didn't notice any reference in the Business Times. Did it slip in under the radar? It looks pretty interesting to me:

The Pittsburgh Planning Commission yesterday approved a proposal to build a nine-story, metal and glass building with an Asian design flavor at the SouthSide Works.

Specifically, the commission had to allow the building to be taller than 75 feet, because the zoning for SouthSide Works restricts all but three buildings to that height.

The proposed Surety Center would be 100 feet tall. The developer, Surety Pittsburgh, and Pfaffman and Associates architects are tailoring the building, in part, as an incubator for Asian businesses.

This has been in development for a few years. One of the former URA upper managers is playing a role in the venture too. Sounds great.

Leave it up to the Chinees to show us how things should be in terms of DENSITY. Build UP. That is what we should have been doing all along. These 2-and-3 story buildings, along the river, in popular places are wrong.

The one story buildings are way wrong (as in UPMC's indoor football building). Too cheap. Too few jobs.